The Application of Ultrasonic Sensors in Smart Flowmeters

摘要

The application of ultrasonic flowmeters in automatic measurement systems is discussed in this paper. The measurement principles of ultrasonic sensors are analyzed. Through the comparison between the signal propagation of ultrasonic clamp-on sensors and insertion sensors, the advantages of the application of ultrasonic clamp-on sensors are explained. In the design of automatic measurement systems, based on ultrasonic flowmeters, the hardware structure and software program are introduced. In the hardware structure, the RS-485 bus is adopted to achieve multipoint half duplex communication, and the communication protocol of the flow meter is briefly analyzed. The serial communication control is implemented with a Virtual Basic Language software design. In addition, comparisons among ultrasonic, vortex and electromagnetic flowmeters are performed to underline some advantages of ultrasonic flowmeters.